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60 dead in Darfur gold mine collapse

More than 60 people were killed when a desert gold mine collapsed in Sudan's Darfur region on Monday.

It was not known how many people may still be missing after the incident in Jebel Amir district, more than 200 kilometres northwest of the North Darfur state capital, El Fasher.

Details of the accident only came to light on Thursday and local commissioner Haroun al-Hassan rescue operations at the unofficial 40 metre-deep mine were still taking place.

"The number of people who died is more than 60," Mr Hassan said.

"I cannot give exact figures because no one got precise numbers of how many people were going inside the tunnel."

Rescuers were using hand tools to try to reach the victims, he said, without specifying whether anyone might still be alive.

"We cannot use machines because if they came near, the ground will collapse," he said.

"People are using traditional tools and because of this, the rescue is very slow."

One witness to the collapse said: "I myself saw this land collapse. It started from Monday evening but the main collapse happened on Tuesday."

The miner, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that it would be difficult to know how many men were buried.

"Nobody takes the names of those who go inside," he said.

"Only their colleagues or their relatives know where they are."

A resident of El Sireaf, the main town in the surrounding region, said he visited the remote site of the accident.

"The problem is that those small mines are so close together and if one of them falls it will affect the others," he said.

"That is what happened in this mine. All the neighbouring mines collapsed."

Sudan is trying to boost exports of gold and other non-petroleum products after the separation of South Sudan two years ago left Khartoum without three-quarters of its crude oil production.

Inflation has soared above 40 per cent and the currency has plunged in value because Sudan lost most of its international payments capacity and half its fiscal revenues.

Sudan's mining minister Kamal Abdel Latif said traditional land-based mining produced 41 tonnes of gold worth $2.5 billion to November last year, with another 50 tonnes targeted for this year.

Seven weeks of clashes between two Arab tribes in Jebel Amir in January-February killed more than 500 members of the Beni Hussein tribal group, a Benni Hussein member of parliament for the area said earlier.